I ran a little test here over the last few weeks, but before getting into that let’s just enjoy the 28 minutes of sun which coincided with the weekend and matched the glow of the final color on the dogwoods (Cornus florida).
The neighborhood dogwood trees are down to their final autumnal glow after first russeting up in September.
Actually (and as usual) these photos are from earlier in the week when nicer weather prevailed and we were able to enjoy some sunny and perhaps too-warm weather for the few minutes when I wasn’t stuck at work. It’s only now that I’m getting around to celebrating the glowing colors of this past week as I sit inside again, not due to work but due to the typical weekend rainy weather which is feeding the swap again with even more moisture. Whatever though, the plants carry on and I don’t remember the Hydrangea paniculatas ever showing so much pink before… and I’m contemplating maybe adding one more, something which is nice and late and intentionally turns pink each year. The ‘Vanilla Strawberry’ I gave to my mother in law could be a match, but it’s a little earlier than I’d like and because of that might go brown before the season wraps up.
Hydrangea by the street, also brighter than ever.
Speaking of the season wrapping up I just looked at the ten day, and it looks like frost might finally be on the way. We’ve had a mild October again, but it looks like November will come in with a light frost at least, and clear the way for tulip planting and final cleanups.
Aster laevis ‘Raydon’s Favorite?’ (Smooth Aster) is my best aster. It tolerates drought, blooms late, blooms long, and requires no work other than a chopping in half in June. It’s a star of the late autumn border.
Frost won’t be the worst thing. The garden starts to look uncomfortable once the leaves start falling and everything goes to sleep, but the marigolds are still going strong. A good frost moves everything along and puts the lingering things out of their misery while reminding the gardener that there’s a due date approaching for his project, and things need to wrap up before a solid freeze locks everything down.
I still haven’t found the perfect spot for this salvia, possibly a form of Salvia splendens van houttei, but it seems to enjoy a bit of shade to grow best around here. Cuttings have been taken again regardless and it always makes a nice show under the lights… even if it looks a bit cramped in there.
I guess this gardener is ok with an early November first frost. Tender things are mostly indoors and now just a few heavy pots remain to be considered. Having a few extra weeks to bring in pots two or three at a time is so much less stressful than running around the night before an early frost and making the hard decisions all at once.
The delphinum is a lingerer. From a decrepit, summer-weary husk a few perfect flowers are up and open. Had the gardener trimmed it down a few weeks ago, the husk might have been cheerier, but I’ll take this.
The downside to a lingering autumn is that the number of plants saved goes up with each frost-free week. Oh well. Have faith in me that I’m quite capable of killing things off with neglect during the winter 😉
The lingering autumn and on and off gloomy skies have the evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) open all day. It’s a lovely weed which fits in well with the verbena.
Besides the annual ‘to save or not to save’ questions there’s also the ever-too-long ongoing dirt moving projects. I’ve reached the point where backyard fill has reached the meadow, and I’m into the phase where fill is being graded down to the level of the meadow, and basically that means I’ve filled in as much as I wanted to and there’s an end in sight for this back part of the yard.
There’s almost enough level ground so that I can run a grass path from the house all the way back to the berm. That was an important thing back in the day, but as I look at it now I’m not sure why… maybe it was more work than it was worth…
If the back part of the yard is leveled and almost done, does that mean the hill of construction fill in the middle of the yard is gone? Haha, of course not! There’s still a nice bit sitting in the middle of the yard, just waiting for a poor soul to dig it all up and wheelbarrow it to other far reaches of the garden. The last few tons of dirt and rock are destined for the side of the yard, to level out along the fence and around the coldframe area, and hopefully provide a nice spot for the homeless camellia seedlings.
There’s only a little bit of the mountain left. We are almost at the two year mark for when the digging first began, and I am hoping for less strenuous days ahead.
So besides impending frost and ongoing earthmoving there’s still the small matter of a test. I really did have a point in that title and it refers to new lighting ambitions for the always expanding winter garden. We are going LED and moving on from the fluorescent shop lights which have served their time.
The product. Four foot LED shoplights from Harbor Freight. On sale for $43 but I see they’re up to $54 again, and that’s not in the budget for additional sets….
It seems like everyone has an opinion on using LED lights for raising plants, and I blame the basement growers of ‘medicinal’ crops for all this info and interest. There’s the science of specific wavelengths for the efficiency of photosynthesis but then there’s an avalanche of weakly proven theories on what’s best for what kind of growth and how ideal certain setups are and and and…. I tried to follow along but after numerous attempts came to the conclusion that LED lights specifically for plants were far outside my budget, plus many were a pinkish sort of light, and even with the current mania for Barbie and pink, I was not down with that. I finally stumbled across someone with some growing experience who stated that general LEDs, although they don’t emit light at the wavelengths specifically matching the preferred wavelengths for chlorophyll peak efficiency, emit light which is good enough for the range, and with that in mind just get something bright enough. So that’s what I did. The price and brightness were there but my confidence wasn’t, so I decided that a simple test might be a good idea before full commitment.
Corn, arugula, and calendula seedlings grown under LED (left) and fluorescent (right). If anything the LED seedlings look better, if not at least they’re on par with results from the old system.
The test was a few pots with corn, arugula, and calendula seedlings sown and grown completely under the two light sources. It was an experimental setup which would make a real scientist cringe, but conditions were mostly similar for both lights and they were just a few feet apart in my garage workshop but not close enough to overlap. Without making too much of the results it looks like the LED worked just fine in growing the seedlings. The corn was indifferent but the arugula and calendula actually seemed to grow faster and more strongly than the Fluorescent plants. I’d show the calendula but of course a slug found the pot and trimmed them back to the size of the other pot before said slug was dispatched. I guess I shall consider that when analyzing my experimental error.
Snowdrops? Yes! It’s that time of year again and Galanthus bursanus is leading the way. Please ignore the slug damage, I first blamed rabbits but when all the rest of the blooms disappeared with near surgical precision I think the bunnies are innocent for once and slugs are the true culprits.
That’s the first of what will surely become too many photos of snowdrops, but I’m sure you knew that. There should be more, but in addition to slugs hitchhiking their way into the winter garden they’ve been extremely active in the garden and have mowed down more than their share of the earliest of the autumn flowering snowdrops. Snowdrops in the fall is a new thing for me, I never thought is could be an option this far North, but with every winter less enthusiastic than the last it’s becoming a possibility. I just have to figure out how to grow them. They survive, but there’s still something (other than slug attacks) which doesn’t let them grow as well as the others already here. Don’t you worry though, rather than discouraged I’m even more enthusiastic about them and just keep trying them in new spots until they find something to their liking!
Hopefully we all find something to our liking. Have a great week!
sorta like suburbia 
Your hydrangea and asters are looking wonderful, Frank. I love a slow fall with colors deepening without burning from deep cold. Can’t believe how much soil you’ve moved… bet you can, though!
With all the rain this year, the slugs have been horrendous. I put out boards and dutifully collected the slimy buggers every day all summer long, yet still it seems to make no difference. I barely made a dent in the population. Where they come from is anyone’s guess. Gremlins throwing them in my garden at night?
I agree that the long, frost-free October was a boon for leisurely attending fall chores. I took advantage of the past warm days to cut and remove 3 cartloads of annuals so that I don’t have to deal with frosted uglies next week. I got my money’s worth out of them this summer, I’ll miss the bouquets though. Back to store bought, hardly close to fresh from the garden.
Isn’t it amazing how something changes just so “right” that a pest or weed can just explode? Sometimes it’s cool, like when a few years ago a Red Admiral explosion occurred and there were dozens floating around the garden… but when it’s slugs? A little too slimy for my taste.
I did finally see a garter snake last week, and although I can’t imagine the experience I think I saw they eat slugs… in which case there might be more snakes next year lol, which I’m fine with, but others may object to!
We had our first frost/freeze last week, and wouldn’t you know I was out there until dusk finding more things which were supposed to go in. Now it’s done though, and on to leaf mulching, canna digging, and tulip planting. Never ending fun, right?!
Absolutely, never-ending! I am really hating my hedge right now, only half done and I feel fully done! 😀
The preparation for winter is underway here also – I brought 14 potted cannas into the glasshouse today in anticipation of night-time frosts. The garden is a quagmire due to heavy rains but the snowdrops are in flower – G. bursanus and G.reginae-olgae just won’t grow in our garden and I’ve given up on them.
I have a beautiful elwesii in bloom this last week, a first bloom of ‘Santa Claus’, and besides the questions regarding the name I’m wondering if it will always be so early. ‘Barnes’ might open today but most of the other autumn elwesii are not yet showing so I’m excited about the early Christmas.
I’m only mentioning this since everything else has been nibbled down. In this dry garden I don’t normally have anything for slugs, so out of laziness I’ve convinced myself that removing the blooms is a good thing, similar to beheading tulip fields, and the snowdrops will only return stronger next year… maybe….
Plus all the r-os are barely single blooms and no great loss. I may try some liquid feed this weekend and see if that does anything, although I should actually just be happy anything making foliage now makes it through the winter.
Slugs will eat colchicums, too, although they are poisonous to all mammals.
I’d like to think they eat the colchicum and then slime off into the dark and die…
You’ll be happy with the LED’s, I switched a couple years back. I have a mix of pink and white, both seem to work well. In the basement, all pink, a shock at first, but now just evocative of alien egg hatcheries and Stranger Things. I’ve come to like it.
Haha, I never thought of it that way! Now on second thought the pink color could be awfully cool.
Glad you’re happy with the switch to LED, I think I’m going to love them as well I just have to wait until the one I started with goes on sale again. Stupid Harbor Freight seems to have jacked the price up $12 and knowing I could have gotten them for less is keeping me from getting any more.
Amazing! Snowdrop season is coming!!
Thank you! I’m glad it’s not just me that’s excited
I had a load of laundry today that went thru a warm wash cycle and 50 minutes of dryer time. I found a slug on one of the tee shirts, still alive and crawling, though he seemed a bit sluggish.
Ouch. Sluggish? I’d expect slugs to be nearly indestructible. It’s frightening how when you touch one, the slime patch they leave is almost impossible to remove without losing a layer of skin. I’m sure slugs have been studied by the Department of Defense.
The hydrangeas look great. Mine never retain that lovely color but burn and turn brown–it’s been just way too dry here. You still have many beautiful vignettes. We’re on a similar track for frost this week and anyway my garden has been wondering when it could rest. Best, Susie
I’m surprised by how far South this freeze extended but I’m in the same boat as far as feeling a little relief now that it’s over. I hate to say it, but I like cleaning out the garden and putting it to bed for the winter, and then enjoying that neat and empty look for a few weeks. We don’t follow it with spring though, here there’s snow and icy sloppiness which makes it all messy enough to need a second cleanup in spring… fortunately it’s not as much work as the autumn one!
After 2 years of shuffling soil and rocks you deserve some time to experiment and enjoy your works. Of course it was worth all the work. You will adjust to the new heights and lows of the soil distribution. I am sure experiments will abound.
All that rusty color in the garden is the right thing this time of year. We are to have our first frost tonight. I am looking forward to it. I doubt it does a lot of damage but it will put all the plants in the garden on notice that winter is commencing.
We finally got a shot of rain here the past couple of days, almost 3/4″. Made me happy and I am sure the plants in the garden are thrilled too.
All the pots are emptied and any pots I use for decorative purposes are put away for the year. I like the slow uptake of pots and outdoor furniture. Our small yard barn takes some maneuvering to get everything situated. Something like a puzzle.
Looking forward to updates on your lighting experiments and continual updates of the galanthus gems as they unfold through out the winter and spring.
Heh heh, for as drawn out as this autumn has been I of course ended up dragging things into the garage until dusk the night before our big freeze. I guess I’ll never learn 😉 I have to still move a few pots into safer territory. I don’t have a barn but the eaves of the house are wide enough that up next to the foundation is mostly out of the rain and that’s where they’ll go. Of course I don’t empty them. So far so good, but they’re expensive things so I always get somewhat nervous.
Glad a little rain came. I hope it keeps it up now that the temperature is dropping. It always takes so long for the moisture to get back in to the soil after a summer long baking.
I hope to have plenty of galanthus updates this winter! I just have to finish this dirt moving nonsense!
It sounds like you are very organized this autumn Frank, and after moving all that soil you deserve a winter break! Before even starting to read, I noticed how pink your Hydrangea paniculata are – a beautiful addition to the autum garden! I am inspired to look out for one to try in the garden beds next year, as I have one in a pot at the moment that tends to get scorched in summer and has looked brown since the end of August. Our forecast is actually rather mild for the next 10 days, so our first frost last week was only teasing…
haha, my organization fell apart completely when the first freezing night showed up! As usual I was out till dusk dragging things in and trying to remember if I tucked any pots in out of the way places. It’s done though, and I’m happy for that.
Yes, I also love the pink shades on the hydrangea, but it seems like any late summer heat or drought will turn the pink brown, so let me know if you find one which keeps it’s color! It’s a fun search though. I don’t think I’ve found anything even close to ugly so they’re all wins.
A mild week ahead here as well, and for the first time in weeks a dry weekend! I should get out there 😉
Frank, I do think we in this part of the country won the Fall Color lottery this year. My Enkianthus ‘Summer Hill’ has been a color disappointment for 3 years until last month when it FINALLY decided to turn the typical lovely rich reds. And my Ginkgo ‘Troll’ which (again for 3 year) never bothered to turn yellow at all before dumping its leaves, it shining like a giant lemon beacon. Several other plants that were okay-to-fine in previous years have been standouts also. That is one love Hydrangea, by the way!
Glad that you’re also seeing some great color in your back-under-control garden! The enkianthus has always intrigued me but any of those more delicate, acid-loving things scare me a little. I struggle with getting rhododendrons and azaleas established, even when they grow bigger than wanted over at the neighbor’s.
Somehow I missed your last two updates, and just breezing through them I realized I need more time to digest than this evening has! Fortunately there’s a weekend and holiday coming up, and right now I’m deluded enough to think I’ll catch up on a bunch of things during that time off 😉